Ligue 1: The German Thomas Tuchel is the New PSG Coach

Thomas Tuchel will succeed Unai Emery on the bench of Paris Saint-Germain. The German coach has signed a two-year contract with the Paris club, champion of France in 2018.

He has never had such a cloakroom full of stars, has won few trophies and is not a big name in world football: PSG has officially announced on Monday the arrival of Thomas Tuchel, former coach of Dortmund, as coach for next season.

The native of Krumbach (Bavaria), 44, signed a two-year contract with the club champion of France . He already knows his mission: to do better in the Champions League than his predecessors of the Qatari era Carlo Ancelotti Laurent Blanc (eliminated in the quarterfinals) and Unai Emery (eliminated in earlier playoffs). Overview of this big Paris bet.

Chosen by the Emir

His coming to PSG raises many questions. First, how will the relationships at the top of the club chart go?

This former player of very modest level (a dozen matches of 2nd German division with the Stuttgarter Kickers at the beginning of the 1990s) was recommended by the consul of Qatar in Germany to the clan of the emir Tamim al-Thani, advance L ‘ Team . It is not directly the choice of the club president, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, nor that of the sports director Antero Henrique.

Now, the man does not have his tongue in his pocket. Without a club since May 2017, his departure from Borussia was tumultuous, and his disagreements with the management had made much talk.

Megastars to manage

And how is he going to apprehend an explosive cloakroom, who has not had such a thing in hand in Mainz or even Dortmund? In Paris, you’re never safe from a penaltygate between Edinson Cavani and Neymar.

“We’ll see if he manages to manage the locker room, because I think it’s the hardest in big teams,” said recently SFR Sport Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal), who played under his command to Dortmund. And “Aubam” to add about the technician:

“He’s a little crazy, like me.”

“It is surely a handicap that he does not speak (the) language of Neymar, but it is through his ideas on football that he can seduce. It’s going to be interesting, “said Peter Zeidler, a former coach from Sochaux, who spent his coaching diplomas with Thomas Tuchel.

Famous Tactician

Tuchel had been contacted by Bayern Munich to take over from Jupp Heynckes. This interest from a major in Europe attests to the rating it enjoys on the coaching market, despite its very relative continental prestige and its low ranking (a place of vice-champion of Germany in 2016 and a German Cup in 2017, with Borussia).

This is particularly due to his appetite for tactics, which he is presented as a “monster” by his counterpart Niko Kovac (current coach of Eintracht Frankfurt and future coach of Bayern Munich).

And his ability to have advanced young shoots club Ruhr. Ousmane Dembele, gone since to Barcelona, ​​appreciated it very much. The young Julian Weigl or Christian Pulisic put themselves under his control and his Borussia could propose a game licked and spectacular. To win the German Cup, his Dortmund had notably ousted the great Bayern Munich by winning 3-2 in a crazy game in the semifinals.

“We’ll say that his style of play is a bit like Guardiola’s. In any case, it’s the same spirit. He likes to keep the ball a lot, with a game whatever happens in the front, “Aubameyang still insists, who concludes:” It could be very good for Paris “.

“His ambitious personality, his assertive taste for forward-moving play and his strength of character are part of the style we have always heard at Paris Saint-Germain.”

Effective remodel

What will be Tuchel’s maneuvering room for recruitment for the coming season? Probably not very big. It will first be necessary to take into account possible sanctions related to financial fair play (announcement of UEFA expected in June).

The priorities of the club are known: a left-back and a defensive midfielder. For this last post, will Tuchel be tempted to play the Bundesliga card with Weigl (which he has known in Dortmund) and Max Meyer (Schalke 04) as the advance Le Parisien?

Henrique, for the position of left side, would have activated the tracks of Alex Sandro (Juventus) and Ryan Sessegnon (Fulham) according to L’Equipe. And for the goalkeeper, the Portuguese official strongly believes Gianluigi Donnarumma (19 years old, AC Milan) according to the sports daily.